


Words Unspoken

by AutisticWriter



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Book 2: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Established Relationship, Fluff and Angst, Happy Ending, Homophobia, Multi, One Shot, Outing, Speech Impediments, Stuttering
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-01
Updated: 2016-08-01
Packaged: 2018-07-28 15:49:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7647196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AutisticWriter/pseuds/AutisticWriter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Lockhart becomes the Basilisk's latest victim, his and Snape's relationship comes to light.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Words Unspoken

**Author's Note:**

> In canon, Lockhart is a half-blood, but I made him Muggle-born for the purpose of this story.

“Hello, everyone,” Lockhart said from the top of the stairs, smiling smugly. Harry glanced at Ron, who pulled a face. “I’m sure y-you already know who I am, but I’ll introduce myself anyway. M-M-M-M . . . I am Gilderoy L-L-Lockhart, and I am y-y-your new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher.”

He paused as though waiting for an awed gasp, but everyone was just staring at him with wide, horrified eyes. Dean was on the verge of laughing. Harry couldn’t help but listen to the stutter in his voice, wondering if Lockhart could possibly be nervous. That didn’t seem like him, somehow.

“Y-Y-Y . . . Y-Y-Y . . .”

Lockhart stopped talking, his mouth moving wordlessly, his face flushing red. Harry glanced at Hermione, who was staring at their teacher with an almost pitying expression on her face. Lockhart closed his eyes for a few seconds, and then opened them again, smiling a very forced grin.

“Sorry about that,” he said weakly. “Some of y-y-y-you may have noticed that I have a stutter.”

From somewhere behind him, Harry heard Malfoy mutter, “You don’t say.”

“Now,” Lockhart said, sounding slightly breathless. “L-L-L-L-L . . .”

As Lockhart stuttered, Malfoy and his friends seemed to give into their muffled giggles, and started laughing. Lockhart looked humiliated; Hermione looked like she wanted to give him a hug.

“Y-Y-Y-Y-You know, it’s cruel to m-m-m-m-m-” Lockhart paused, as though trying to force the words out, his hands clenched into fists, his eyes screwed up. “To m-m-m-m-m, to m-m-m   . . . to laugh at p-p-people for stuttering.”

As much as he disliked Lockhart, Harry had to agree.

\---

Lockhart was late for their next DADA lesson, so the Gryffindors and the Slytherins all crowded around the door in the corridor, looking totally bored. Harry leaned his back against the wall and stared up at the ceiling . . . at least until Malfoy spoke.

“Where the hell is L-L-L-Lockhart?” Malfoy said, and his little gang all laughed.

“Detention, Malfoy,” Snape said as he walked past the group of students.

Malfoy turned around, looking stunned. “But what did I do, Sir?”

“It’s cruel to laugh at people for stuttering, Malfoy. Professor Lockhart may irritate you – I certainly know that he irritates me -   but he doesn’t deserve to be mocked for his stutter.”

But Harry was just staring at where Snape had just been, because Snape had just used exactly the same phrase as Lockhart had, and he had no idea why. It couldn’t be a coincidence.

\---

“I’d l-l-like to introduce m-m-m-m—” Lockhart stopped talking, his tongue clicking as he tried to form the word that he couldn’t say. A few people started laughing, but, this time, he seemed to be able to “M-m-my assistant, P-P-Professor Snape.”

Snape walked up onto the stage, his arms folded across his chest, scowling.

Both professors bowed to each other, and walked to opposite ends of the platform. And then they turned around and raised their wands.

“Exp-p-p—”

In the time it took for Lockhart to get the word out, Snape had already disarmed him. He flew through the air and landed in a heap several feet away, wincing. Hermione winced too, but Ron laughed, and Harry had to grin. He never thought he would be on Snape’s side in a duel, but Snape was definitely less annoying. A fleeting smile crossed Snape’s face, but his face was blank by the time Lockhart had hauled himself to his feet. It was almost as if he didn’t want Lockhart to see him mocking him.

\---

Harry turned the corner, and froze, horrified. Floating a few inches off of the floor was Nearly Headless Nick, now jet black and frozen, his head part off. And then he saw who was lying behind him, and he felt a bit sick. It was Professor Lockhart.

Without thinking, Harry hurried over to them and kneeled down beside them, wondering if he should yell out for help or run away or—

“Another attack! Another attack! Potter strikes again!”

Harry turned his head and saw Peeves speeding towards him, his eyes wide and his mouth stretched into a gleeful smile. Harry groaned and stumbled to his feet.

“Shut up!” He hissed, wishing the poltergeist would just go away.

But Peeves wouldn’t shut up; with a smug smile, he launched into a song that accused Harry of being the person trying to kill the students. When Harry complained, he sang louder and louder. Harry’s heart was pounding in his chest. He pointed his wand at Peeves’s face, but the poltergeist just laughed and sung louder still.

“Shut up!” He yelled.

A few seconds later, a door opened and Professor McGonagall stepped out into the corridor. She was glaring at Peeves as though she wanted him to shut up too. But then her eyes focused on Nearly Headless Nick and Lockhart, and Harry, who was still stood beside them.

“Professor, I—”

“Of course you didn’t do it, Potter, I know that,” she said, cutting him off. Harry felt his chest relax slightly. “Peeves, shut up, or I will set the Bloody Baron on you. Now, make yourself useful and go and get Madame Pomfrey.”

Peeves sighed, but he stopped singing and zoomed off down the corridor. McGonagall kneeled down beside Lockhart and Nick, and sighed.

“Petrified,” she said. “Did you see who did this, Potter?”

Harry shook his head, making the corridor spin slightly. “No, Professor. I just came ‘round the corner and . . . saw them.”

“I see.” She said, but she didn’t sound like she did.

Peeves must not have taken McGonagall’s threat seriously, because Harry heard a rumbling sound, and then, all of a sudden, hundreds of students poured down the corridor from both directions, surrounding Harry, McGonagall and the two victims. They all froze when they saw what had happened, and a few people screamed. Harry felt dizzier than ever.

“I knew it!” Justin Finch-Fletchley shrieked, pointing an accusing hand at Harry. Everyone started mumbling, but McGonagall didn’t look impressed.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” McGonagall said. “Potter didn’t do anything. Now, all of you, go back to your common rooms. Now!”

Her tone of voice was firm and slightly threatening, but most of the students didn’t move. She continued to shout at them all, but Harry wasn’t sure what she was saying.

Time seemed to be going strangely for Harry. He had no idea how much time had passed when he suddenly saw that Professors Snape, Flitwick and Sprout had all arrived in the still crowded corridor. Flitwick and Sprout began to herd their students back towards their respective common rooms, joining McGonagall in yelling for the students to get out of the way.

But Snape did nothing. He just stood there, staring down at Lockhart as students shoved into him, barely reacting to the noise and the constant jolts. He seemed to be in a daze; Harry thought, for a few, idiotic seconds, that he had been petrified too. But then Harry saw him begin to blink very rapidly, and he clenched his hands into tight, trembling fists. And then he breathed in very deeply and walked over to McGonagall.

Even as Harry made his way to Professor Dumbledore’s office and worried about the prospect of being blamed for this attack that he so obviously didn’t do, he couldn’t forget the brief look on Snape’s face. He had looked like he was about to cry. But what did he have to cry about? He didn’t understand.

\---

In the aftermath of the attack, Harry wasn’t sure whether the fact that a ghost or a teacher had been petrified scared everyone more. The students seemed to be more concerned that Nearly Headless Nick had been petrified (“If he’s already dead, how can he get petrified?” Ron asked Harry for the millionth time, despite the fact that Harry didn’t know any more than him), but the teachers seemed far more worried that one of their fellow staff members had been attacked.

However, the one person who Harry didn’t expect to care at all was now acting very strangely, as though he did seem to be affected, and that confused Harry and Ron even more. Professor Snape, who was never afraid to voice his dislike of Lockhart, was acting even more grumpy than usual. He was snappier than they had ever seen him act in class, yelling at people who barely did anything wrong, and taking points away from everyone, even from his own house.

And, to cap it all, when Harry got close enough to him, he clearly saw that Snape’s eyes were very red. Harry glanced at Hermione, who, seeing what he saw, pulled a face that looked to be somewhere between concern and confusion.

“It looks like he’s been crying,” she whispered.

“Snape, crying?” Ron said, frowning. “What would he be upset about?”

“I don’t know,” Harry muttered. “But I think Hermione‘s right.”

Towards the end of the lesson, Neville suddenly knocked over his caldron, sending it crashing to the floor and spraying most of the dungeon, and his own robes, in thick, black potion.

“For heaven’s sake, Longbottom!” Snape yelled, sounding deliriously angry, but his bottom lip was wobbling like he was fighting back tears.

As Neville trembled with fear, Snape waved his wand and the mess was cleared up instantly, but he was still trembling. He stormed off into his office without saying anything else and slammed the door behind him. Harry looked at Ron, whose eyes were very wide.

“Yeah,” he said, “Hermione was definitely right.”

\---

Determined to find out what was wrong with Snape, Harry decided to follow him around with his invisibility cloak on, in the hope he might find out something interesting. At the end of their next Potions lesson (which happened to be the last lesson of the day), he dashed around the corner, pulled on his cloak, and then doubled back. A few minutes later, Snape left the room carrying his things. Harry followed him through the school, eventually coming to a stop outside the staff room. Snape was only in there for a minute or so, and came back out without his bag. Then Harry followed him again, and they eventually reached the doors to the medical wing.

Confused, he dashed after Snape before the door banged shut, and glanced around the room. The only people in here were the petrified Colin and Lockhart, and Crabbe, who had landed himself in the medical wing after an attempted hex had gone badly wrong. Snape sat down next to Lockhart’s bed, and held his frozen hand between both of his own. He looked upset again, and his eyes were redder than ever.

Harry looked over at a Crabbe, who was lying in the bed opposite Lockhart, seemingly asleep. His head was wrapped in bandages, making him look like he was wearing a turban, but Harry had no sympathy for him; if he was going to try to hex someone, he should have accepted that someone else might get in there first. He looked a bit harder, and saw that Crabbe actually wasn’t asleep; his eyes were slightly open, like he was squinting.

Seemingly satisfied that no one was watching, Snape reached out to brush Lockhart’s hair from his forehead, but, obviously, that was petrified too, so he didn’t have much success. And then, to Harry’s amazement, he leaned forward and carefully kissed Lockhart’s cheek.

Suddenly, Snape’s agitated behaviour made sense to Harry. This was why he was so stressed: his _partner_ was petrified. Lockhart was his partner. Snape blinked rapidly, his lip wobbling, obviously trying his upmost to not break down.

Harry looked away, feeling almost sorry for Snape, and looked over at Crabbe instead. There was the strangest expression on his face, an expression somewhere between a grimace and a smug smile.

Deciding that he had seen enough, Harry dashed over to the door the next time it had opened, and almost ran headlong into Malfoy. He stepped back just in time, watching Malfoy stride into the room as Snape, who had obviously heard him coming, stood up and walked away from Lockhart’s bed. Malfoy sat down next to Crabbe, and they started talking in hushed voices. Harry didn’t know what they were saying, but the smiles on their faces told him something bad was going to happen.

And, when they both glanced over at Lockhart and started to grin, Harry had a feeling that Snape and Lockhart’s relationship wasn’t going to be a secret for much longer.

\---

As Harry had expected, the rumour that Snape and Lockhart were a couple spread like wildfire. When Harry woke up the next morning, he found Seamus and Neville talking about it as they got dressed.

“. . . Yeah, I heard from Fred and George that Crabbe saw Snape holding Lockhart’s hand in the hospital wing yesterday afternoon,” Seamus was saying, pulling his robes over his head.

Neville frowned. “Do you mean they’re going out?”

“Guess so?” Seamus shrugged. “Why else would you hold another bloke’s hand?”

“Good point. I just didn’t know Snape was gay.”

“I don’t think he’s gay. Bi, maybe, but . . .”

“Can you stop it, guys?” Harry said, making them jump; they obviously didn’t know he was awake.

“Why?”

“I don’t know,” he said, not sure why he was saying it. “But it just seems really wrong to be talking about this. They weren’t out, and Crabbe’s outed them, and I just think that’s really cruel.”

“He’s got a point,” Dean said, sitting up in bed and rubbing his eyes. “Someone at my Muggle cousin’s school outed him and his boyfriend without asking, and they got bullied horribly for the rest of their time there. I think what Crabbe’s done is horrible.”

Harry smiled, glad someone agreed with him. Then Ron started talking in his sleep and they all got distracted. By the time Ron had woken up and wondered why they were laughing, everyone had forgotten what they were talking about.

Except Harry.

\---

“I can’t believe the head of Slytherin house is a poof.”

Draco Malfoy’s voice floated across the corridor towards Harry, and he scowled.

“Leave it, Harry,” Hermione whispered, gripping his forearm.

“And not only is he a poof, but he’s going out with L-L-Lockhart—”

Malfoy didn’t get to finish his sentence, because Harry was suddenly storming towards him.

“Shut up, Malfoy.” He snapped, his voice wobbling as he tried to suppress his anger.

“Why do you care, Potter?” Malfoy snarled.

Harry paused. He had no idea what to say to that. And, even as Hermione and Ron dragged him away, he still couldn’t think of a comeback.

\---

Several days later, Harry was walking along a corridor on his way back from the toilet when he heard voices drifting through the crack in the ajar staff room door. He recognised the voices, and crept closer, listening to their conversation.

“You know, I always thought there was something going on between those two,” Professor Trelawney said in an annoyingly mystifying voice.

“Yes, Sybil, I’m sure you did,” Professor McGonagall said flippantly, obviously not believing a word she was saying.

“I personally don’t know why everyone’s making such a fuss about it,” Professor Flitwick squeaked.

Harry was pretty sure he knew what they were talking about.

“I’m certain that this is none of anyone’s business,” Professor Dumbledore said, and there was silence. “And I am certain that most of you will remember what happened last time a couple were outed without their consent.”

If it was possible, the silence sounded even more awkward.

“I’m sorry, Albus,” Trelawney said after a long pause. “I forgot.”

“I know you did. But I think it would be beneficial to think about it again.”

Harry wanted to hear more, but he heard footsteps, and had to hurry away before the teachers realised that he had been eavesdropping.

\---

Harry hung back at the end of their Potions class, when most of the other students were leaving, with the intention of talking to Snape. He didn’t know why he cared about this so much, but this whole thing was really getting to him, and he wanted to help in any way he could. Taking a deep breath, he approached Snape, who was rummaging through his bag at the front of the room.

“Sir?” Harry said, carefully placing the vial of his potion on the teacher’s desk.

“What, Potter?” Snape snapped irritably, without looking up.

Harry glanced around, and, checking no one was close enough to hear him, said, “I’m sorry for what’s happened.”

Snape frowned, looking more confused them angry. “What do you mean?”

“I’m sorry that everyone’s talking about you and Professor Lockhart. I mean, you must have been keeping your relationship quiet for a reason, right?”

Snape sighed, finally looking up. “Yes, we were, Potter. Because, and you probably haven’t noticed, as you tend to be rather oblivious most of the time, the wizarding word is not exactly accommodating of LGBT people.”

Harry ignored the insult, feeling an odd stab of sympathy for his teacher.

“Do you know why that is, sir?” asked Harry, who had always thought that wizards would be more liberal than Muggles, for some reason.

“Well, I just wanted to say that I don’t agree with, uh, anything that anyone else has said. I think they’re out of order. Um, yeah, that’s all, really.”

And he walked off, feeling horribly embarrassed and wondering why everyone in the films he had seen was so good at making spontaneous speeches, because it was a lot harder than it looked.

“You know, Potter,” Snape said as Harry reached the doorway. Harry stopped walking and turned around. “You are much less like your father than I thought.”

And he smiled at him. Snape actually smiled at him. It was remarkable.

Harry didn’t know what he meant, but he decided to take it as a compliment.

\---

As the weeks went by, Snape gradually became more and more like his old self, but he still seemed grumpier and stricter, and, every so often, Harry saw him with red and puffy eyes that told him he had been crying.

The teachers had cracked down on the homophobic comments that people like Malfoy kept using whenever they saw Snape, but Harry still heard the occasional whispered comment, and he didn’t know why it made him so angry. But it did, and it took a lot of restraint to not hit Malfoy with a curse whenever he heard him say such horrible things.

\---

The next time Harry saw Snape was when poor Hermione was one of the next victims. As McGonagall led him and Ron up to Hermione’s bed in the medical wing, Harry looked over at Lockhart’s bed. Snape was, once again, sat beside his partner. When he saw Harry looking at him, he smiled weakly. Harry still found it surreal when Snape smiled.

\---

When Nearly-Headless Nick drifted through the wall of the Great Hall a few days after Harry’s rescue of Ginny from the Chamber of Secrets, Harry felt his heart leap, hoping he knew what this meant. Other students were looking too, standing up in their seats and calling the ghost’s name. Smiling, Nick drifted over to the Gryffindor table, replying to people’s ‘hello’s with enthusiasm.

“Hello, Sir Nicholas,” Harry said.

“Good evening, Mr Potter,” Nick said, settling into the gap between Ron and Dean.

Professor Dumbledore stood up, and, with some reluctance, everyone was quiet.

“As you call can see,” he said, “Sir Nicholas has been unpetrified, and so have the rest of the victims. They should be joining us in a few minutes.”

Almost everyone cheered. Harry looked at Ron, who looked as excited as he felt.

“Hermione,” he whispered.

Harry knew what he meant; they were finally going to get Hermione back. Harry put his arm around his friend, feeling oddly close to tears.

Colin was the first person who came into the hall through the doors, beaming. He hurried up to his group of first year friends, who all hugged him. Once he had finished being crushed by their hugs, he looked down the table at Harry, and waved at him. Harry waved back, and, for the first time, it was a genuine action.

Lockhart was next, his hair a mess, his robes askew, a nervous smile on his face. He looked up at the staff table, and a massive grin crossed his face.

“Sev!” He cried, and he ran straight up to Snape, almost tripping over his robes in his haste, and hugged Snape across the table, spilling several goblets in the process.

The whole hall broke out into nervous giggles, as though no one quite knew what to think, even though everyone knew they were a couple; Harry could see Malfoy grimacing, but he didn’t care.

“Gilderoy,” Snape said warningly, but he was smiling.

Lockhart straightened up and looked around the room, seeming to realise where he was. His face had gone very, very red.

“Um . . . I m-m-m-missed him?” He tried.

“Yes, we gathered that,” McGonagall said, but she, too, was smiling.

Snape got to his feet and kissed Lockhart across the table, before pulling him into a tight hug, not seeming to care that everyone was looking.

Harry looked away from the strangely heart warming sight as two more figures came into the hall: Penelope and . . .

“Hermione!”

He and Ron dashed across the room to meet their friend, who pulled them into a joint hug.

“We’ve missed you so much,” Harry said.

And he was pretty certain that, across the other side of the hall, Snape was telling Lockhart the same thing.


End file.
